Gadgetory

just a couple of weeks ago Google announced the next generation of its Android wear platform and it promises to make smartwatches much more independent from your phone now that's not gonna be available until later this year but you can kind of get a taste of what's to come with LG's watch urbane second edition LTE now unlike every other Android wear watch this LG has a cellular radio inside of it which means that if you don't have your phone with you you can still use your watch you can get the watch urbane from 18t and Verizon right now and it's pretty expensive either way 18 t sells it for 360 bucks but they'll sell to you for $200 if you sign up for two years data service on it and Verizon is even more expensive they sell for $500 or 450 if you sign up for a two-year data plan both carriers charge 10 bucks a month for service on it which is pretty pricey for something that's not your phone or your tablet or your laptop at its base in your main is just like any other Android wear watch it here's where it's different if you go out and haven't leave your phone at home and it's connected to Wi-Fi or cellular your Bane will act just the same as if your phone was in your pocket and paired over Bluetooth you can see your notifications you can use apps you can perform boy searches you can even make phone calls and send and receive text messages but if your phone isn't connected to the network for whatever reason the watch becomes much dumber and only lets you use its offline functions the AT&T model will still let you make and receive phone calls and send and receive text messages but the Verizon version will only let you receive forwarded phone calls you can't perform voice searches you can't use apps you can't launch anything it's really just a watch on your wrist now I've been using the AT&T model well it definitely works when it's not connected directly to my phone it's much slower especially when it's looking up information or transcribing text phone calls are usable in a quiet environment but it can be hard to hear the watch's speaker when it's noisy it's definitely not something I'd want to rely on or use more than 130 times dead now as a watch that you're bein it's pretty large it's got a nice round sharp crisp display metal body the battery lasts all day and there aren't any major frustrations with lag enos in the interface or anything like that but unfortunately the rubber strap is pretty stiff and uncomfortable and you can't change it which is a bit frustrating now there's two extra buttons on the side of the urbane that you don't get with other Android wear watches LG's programmed one of them to launch your contact list and other one to launch a physical activity tracker unfortunately they can't be reprogrammed which is the way more useful if you can send apps that you actually use so here's how you should look at the watch urbane second edition LTE it's a preview of what's to come I would recommend you buy it right now it's just too expensive and it's extra options over regular Android wear watches don't justify its monthly service cost but it's going to get a lot more interesting later this year when Android wear 2.0 comes out at that point you might even want a cellular connected watch that has all of its functions without your phone and lets you install apps directly to the watch but for now you're better off choosing one of the other many Android wear options that don't carry a monthly service fee follow more